WhatsApp's new record: 64 billion messages handled in 24 hours

Whatsapp announced yesterday that it has hit a new record after the company processed 64 billion messages in just 24 hours. The figure breaks up into 20 billion messages sent (inbound) and 44 billion messages received (outbound). The break up might seem disproportionate because it includes group messages, where one inbound corresponds to several outbound messages.

After Facebook acquired Whatsapp in February, the messaging service went through a few hiccups. It not only suffered one major outage, but also came under the scanner for privacy issues. Last month, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum had to come forward to say the Facebook-Whatsapp deal will not affect user privacy.

But the new record will not only help put those concerns to rest, it's also proof that the world’s most popular messaging app is growing strong. Earlier this year, Whatsapp claimed that it has more than 465 million monthly active users.

Recently the messaging service also announced that it will expand to voice calls in the second quarter of 2014. The new feature is expected to roll out on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems first, eventually making its way to other platforms like Windows Phone and Blackberry.